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Yosemite Bans Large Flags From El Capitan, Criminalizing Protests

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Yosemite Bans Large Flags From El Capitan, Criminalizing Protests

It is one of America’s most majestic and recognizable landmarks, having beckoned Teddy Roosevelt, Ansel Adams and, more recently, protesters.

From the granite walls of El Capitan in California’s Yosemite National Park, demonstrators have draped large flags and banners several times in the past year in protest of a number of issues, including the Israel-Hamas war and various Trump administration policies.

There was one symbolizing transgender pride, another saying “Stop the Genocide” and an upside-down American flag, which represents distress.

Now, the federal government seemingly wants to keep the famous rock formation a blank slate. It has outlawed large flags, banners and signs from El Capitan and most of the park altogether.

The ban appears to have been formalized last month by Yosemite’s acting superintendent, Raymond McPadden, in a Park Service compendium of regulations dated May 20.

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The rule tracks with a series of punitive actions by the Trump administration against some critics of its immigration policies and Palestinian sympathizers.

Violators could face up to six months in jail and a fine of up to $5,000 for individuals and $10,000 for groups — penalties already in place for various offenses in the park.

“This restriction is necessary to preserve the values of wilderness character in accordance with the Wilderness Act, provide for an unimpaired visitor experience, protect natural and cultural resources in designated Wilderness and Potential Wilderness Addition portions of the park,” Mr. McPadden wrote.

Parks officials also cast the display of large flags — those greater than 3 feet by 5 feet — on any of the cliffs or mountains in Yosemite as a potential safety hazard that they said could interfere with climbing activity. Flags larger than that size would require a permit.

The Park Service did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday about the new rule, which was reported earlier by Climbing magazine and SFGate.com. Nor did the White House.

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Miranda Oakley, 40, one of four climbers who unfurled a 25-by-10-foot banner last June with the colors of the Palestinian flag saying “Stop the Genocide,” said in an interview on Tuesday that the Trump administration was further trying to suppress voices of dissent.

“To me, it still seems like they want to control what we’re saying,” said Ms. Oakley, who is part of the group Climbers for Palestine.

Ms. Oakley wondered what would happen to people who don’t cooperate with the new rule.

“Are they going to detain them indefinitely, as they have for some international students that have spoken out for Palestine?” she asked.

In February, a small group of protesters hung an inverted American flag — a signal for distress that began with sailors — off the side of El Capitan to protest the Trump administration’s cuts to the Park Service.

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Plenty of eyes were already fixated on El Capitan for the annual phenomenon known as firefall, when the light from the setting sun causes a seasonal waterfall to glow orange.

The display occurred shortly after at least 1,000 Park Service employees were abruptly dismissed from their jobs, part of a sweeping federal work force downsizing initiative that was once overseen by President Trump’s now-estranged ally, Elon Musk.

An additional 3,000 people were fired from the U.S. Forest Service, which plays a significant supporting role with the parks.

In May, a group of climbers unfurled a transgender pride flag in the middle of El Capitan to criticize the Trump administration’s rollback of protections for L.G.B.T.Q. people, including its elimination of diversity, equity and inclusion programs, The San Francisco Chronicle reported.

On the same day last month that the compendium was issued, Doug Burgum, the interior secretary, whose agency oversees the Park Service, asked the public to take note of any signs at parks or on public lands that “are negative about either past or living Americans.” In a directive, Mr. Burgum said that he was carrying out the provisions of an executive order signed by President Trump for “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.”

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El Capitan had a starring role in “Free Solo,” the Oscar-winning 2018 documentary about the climber Alex Honnold’s quest to reach the top of the landmark without a rope.

Ms. Oakley, who estimated that she had climbed El Capitan more than 20 times, said the cliff is a statement in its own right, especially when driving into Yosemite Valley.

“It is right smack dab in your face,” she said.

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Video: F.A.A. Ignored Safety Concerns Prior to Collision Over Potomac, N.T.S.B. Says

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Video: F.A.A. Ignored Safety Concerns Prior to Collision Over Potomac, N.T.S.B. Says

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F.A.A. Ignored Safety Concerns Prior to Collision Over Potomac, N.T.S.B. Says

The National Transportation Safety Board said that a “multitude of errors” led to the collision between a military helicopter and a commercial jet, killing 67 people last January.

“I imagine there will be some difficult moments today for all of us as we try to provide answers to how a multitude of errors led to this tragedy.” “We have an entire tower who took it upon themselves to try to raise concerns over and over and over and over again, only to get squashed by management and everybody above them within F.A.A. Were they set up for failure?” “They were not adequately prepared to do the jobs they were assigned to do.”

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The National Transportation Safety Board said that a “multitude of errors” led to the collision between a military helicopter and a commercial jet, killing 67 people last January.

By Meg Felling

January 27, 2026

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Families of killed men file first U.S. federal lawsuit over drug boat strikes

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Families of killed men file first U.S. federal lawsuit over drug boat strikes

President Trump speaks as U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth looks on during a meeting of his Cabinet at the White House in December 2025.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images


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Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Relatives of two Trinidadian men killed in an airstrike last October are suing the U.S. government for wrongful death and for carrying out extrajudicial killings.

The case, filed in Massachusetts, is the first lawsuit over the strikes to land in a U.S. federal court since the Trump administration launched a campaign to target vessels off the coast of Venezuela. The American government has carried out three dozen such strikes since September, killing more than 100 people.

Among them are Chad Joseph, 26, and Rishi Samaroo, 41, who relatives say died in what President Trump described as “a lethal kinetic strike” on Oct. 14, 2025. The president posted a short video that day on social media that shows a missile targeting a ship, which erupts in flame.

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“This is killing for sport, it’s killing for theater and it’s utterly lawless,” said Baher Azmy, legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights. “We need a court of law to rein in this administration and provide some accountability to the families.”

The White House and Pentagon justify the strikes as part of a broader push to stop the flow of illegal drugs into the U.S. The Pentagon declined to comment on the lawsuit, saying it doesn’t comment on ongoing litigation.

But the new lawsuit described Joseph and Samaroo as fishermen doing farm work in Venezuela, with no ties to the drug trade. Court papers said they were headed home to family members when the strike occurred and now are presumed dead.

Neither man “presented a concrete, specific, and imminent threat of death or serious physical injury to the United States or anyone at all, and means other than lethal force could have reasonably been employed to neutralize any lesser threat,” according to the lawsuit.

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Lenore Burnley, the mother of Chad Joseph, and Sallycar Korasingh, the sister of Rishi Samaroo, are the plaintiffs in the case.

Their court papers allege violations of the Death on the High Seas Act, a 1920 law that makes the U.S. government liable if its agents engage in negligence that results in wrongful death more than 3 miles off American shores. A second claim alleges violations of the Alien Tort Statute, which allows foreign citizens to sue over human rights violations such as deaths that occurred outside an armed conflict, with no judicial process.

The American Civil Liberties Union, the Center for Constitutional Rights, and Jonathan Hafetz at Seton Hall University School of Law are representing the plaintiffs.

“In seeking justice for the senseless killing of their loved ones, our clients are bravely demanding accountability for their devastating losses and standing up against the administration’s assault on the rule of law,” said Brett Max Kaufman, senior counsel at the ACLU.

U.S. lawmakers have raised questions about the legal basis for the strikes for months but the administration has persisted.

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—NPR’s Quil Lawrence contributed to this report.

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Video: New Video Analysis Reveals Flawed and Fatal Decisions in Shooting of Pretti

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Video: New Video Analysis Reveals Flawed and Fatal Decisions in Shooting of Pretti

new video loaded: New Video Analysis Reveals Flawed and Fatal Decisions in Shooting of Pretti

A frame-by-frame assessment of actions by Alex Pretti and the two officers who fired 10 times shows how lethal force came to be used against a target who didn’t pose a threat.

By Devon Lum, Haley Willis, Alexander Cardia, Dmitriy Khavin and Ainara Tiefenthäler

January 26, 2026

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